Saturday, July 14, 2007

Minnesota Nice

Before going over to the dark side of 'round the clock knitting (watch for a cavalcade of FOs later this week), my husband and I spent an all too short week in Minneapolis visiting my parents. I was supposed to have an awesome knit blogger meet-up with Ali of Skeins her Way, but Northworst Airlines had other ideas. Next time! Once we finally arrived, I went to what might be the most amazing (in terms of sock yarn) LYS ever--Borealis Yarns in St. Paul. Wow. This place blows doors off the competition in terms of the shear amount of sock yarn they have, indeed they have an entire room devoted only to that. And the employees are the embodiment of Minnesota Nice. I picked up several skeins of Dream in Color Smooshy and am loving it. Pictured below is 'Cool Fire':

While away we also visited my very close friends Phil and Randy at their farm in southwest Wisconsin. My mother recently said that "...every bit of trouble Heather ever got into was with Phil". Yes, that's true, but we're all grown up now. He is one of the head honchos at Star Valley Flowers, a huge flower farm that specializes in flowering branches. If you watch Martha Stewart, he has been on several times (most recently in Feb.) forcing branches. He and his partner are getting an entire flock of sheep as well as a ram and, if you can believe it, a llama. This ornery bugger keeps a watch over the flock and will supposedly stomp any coyotes or wolves that try to make of with a ewe. Good luck guys!

Besides visiting the farm and shopping, we did things that we can't do here in Pennsyltucky, like visit coffee shops with wi-fi. Note the Darling Resident Marxist Curmudgeon's unstoppable technique for reading in public--yes, he's wearing ear plugs. Could he be any more charming?

I do have one FO to show you, it's the Green Gable from several months ago. I decided to give it to my mom as the color was less than flattering on me. She's looking very regal for someone who has a Willy Warmer in her desk drawer, wouldn't you agree?

Hi Heather! This is your SOS blog reader, Jeanie. Thanks so much for telling us about Borealis Yarns in St. Paul. I'll be the Twin Cities area next week, so I'm definitely heading there. Love the pics of all your socks in progress. :)

A willy warmer, huh? My family had one of those that was crocheted that made the rounds as a gag gift some years ago. Only they called it a "hunter's companion." Guess it' hard to shoot straight when your willy's NOT warm!

Ha-ha-ha! That last line, contrasted with the photo of your mom looking very "regal" is priceless! She looks great in her Green Gable.

Do you think your friends Phil and Randy have an extra cot at their farm? I think I want to move in with them and force brances and tend the flock. That photo of their farm looks like it could be in Tuscany. Simply gorgeous!

That shop in St. Paul looks fantastic. I've only been to one yarn shop that has an entire room/section of sock yarn. VERY hard to resist when yarn shops are set up that way. That Dream in Color stuff looks so nice. That color is right up my ally!!!

I don't like taking the time to hunt up the accents and I'm sure I've made plenty of 'fautes d'orthographe.' :-p

Thanks for posting on my blog and for the gold star! I'll wear it proudly!

You are the reason I am in the knit-along. I saw your post on tricot-Paris and hopped over there and joined right up. I started the blog for that reason, so you also get credit for that. What part of Pennsylvania are you in? My husband's family are in the Philadelphia area.

That's a lovely sweater you made for you mom. She looks beautiful in it.